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Title: The Assassination of Orange
Subtitle: A Foreworld SideQuest
Author: Joseph Brassey
Narrator: Michael Page
Format: Unabridged
Length: 2 hrs and 10 mins
Language: English
Release date: 05-28-13
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 11 votes
Genres: Fiction, Historical
Publisher's Summary:
There's a bounty out for Prince William of Orange...and "alive" is not an option.
The Dutch are trying to free themselves from the Spanish yolk, and the dynamic and charismatic revolutionary, William of Orange, is risking life and limb for the nation he so desperately loves. But when the Spanish monarch offers glory, titles, and twenty thousand crowns for the man who can silence William, the battle for the Netherlands becomes an assassin's game.
Celebrated Welsh mercenary Roger Williams is ordered by the crown of England to protect the prince at all costs, and while the Welsh mercenary has many years of battlefield experience, the cat and mouse of political assassination is a much different fight. The enemy is faceless, its tactics are unknown, and there will be little or no warning before the attempt is made. Roger's skills are drawn from the legacy of the Shield-Brethren - the one true art of the sword - and he may be unprepared for the dawning of the age of the gun.
Members Reviews:
A Piece of the Foreworld Puzzle
As a dedicated fan of The Foreworld Saga, of which Joseph Brassey's The Assassination of Orange is a small but
important part, it has been a little project of mine, starting about a year ago, to accompany my re-readings
of the seminal novels and shorter "Sidequests" by listening to their audio books while re-reading. This has been
a very enjoyable and rewarding endeavor, and since I don't get time to review every book and story I read
I thought I'd say a few words about this one.
Rooted solidly in historical contexts, Brassey's novella recalls the assassination itself, while characterizing not just
William the Silent, the victim, but also his real-life assassin Balthasar Gerard and one of Orange's retainers,
Roger Williams, whose broader service was to Queen Elizabeth under Robert Dudley. Lurking in the background in service
to Orange's nemesis King Philip of Spain is the Duke of Parma, Alexander Farnesse, who becomes a part of
the Foreworld secret history in this tale, representing the "other side" arrayed against the Shield-Brethren
and other forces that appear in the original novels as the protectors of Western civilization against any
and all of its oppressors - largely the Catholic church. The warrior monks make no appearance in Brassey's story,
which takes place long after they have melted into the background. Williams, the character most representative of them
and probably most like them in real life, shows no sign of being part of their order, displays nothing like the
supernatural vor-sight those knights often display, and is in fact probably a more rational and disciplined
character than he was in real life. If anyone in the novella is meant to represent them in opposition to Farnesse,
it is Robert Dudley, manipulating things in the background without Williams's actual knowledge. Just as Farnesse,
flaunting the ancient "broken fasces" symbol on his ring, is clearly a conspirator who manipulates as much as
serves King Philip.
I make note of all of this simply because several reviewers of this novella complain it is too short, while others
say it feels like the first part of a larger story. And it is.
